Thanks a lot for your trip report. I'm from Europe, currently living in Switzerland, and I totally agree that the notion of wilderness and long-distance backpacking is very different here than in the States.In Europe, accommodation is available almost everywhere within day's walking distance, including remote mountain areas and farmlands. It would be in fact possible to travel just with a rainjacket and credit card in your pocket. You can also use the dense network of public transit to skip over uninteresting parts like big city suburbs.On the other hand, it is very difficult to plan a trip if you want to sleep in a tent or under a tarp. In most European countries (with the exception of Scandinavia and few others) it is generally forbidden to camp outside of designated areas (campings), which are usually crammed with RVs and motor homes.Bivouacs are sometimes tolerated in the high mountains, and you can certainly spend a night in tent pitched on a forest clearing in less populated areas if you keep low profile, but you'd be still in a shady legal area at best.

Thanks for the hike and history. Kinda bad there's less wild camping in that portion of Europe. Wish there were something analogous to the AT through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and maybe the "Benelux" countries, terminating in Amsterdam.

I'm from Belgium and agree that In Europe civilization is (most of the time) only a day's march away.But if you want to wild camp that's also perfectly possible. All you need to do is a little planning to avoid densely populated areas. This can be done very easily in for example Scotland, Scandinavia, some parts of Germany, etc. In France there's even something called 'the diagonal of emptiness', it's a geographical line from the north-east to the south-west of France. This line covers an area with a very low population density. Bivouacing (camping for one night) is also permitted in France if you respect certain rules.

Of course a pilgrimage, like the one from the article, is a different way of travelling with other benefits and interest points than hiking desolate areas.

Nice story and beautiful pictures. Made me recall Thoreau's Walking...

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life whounderstood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks--who had agenius, so to speak, for SAUNTERING, which word is beautifully derived"from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, andasked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre," to the HolyLand, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a Sainte-Terrer," aSaunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in theirwalks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but theywho do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some,however, would derive the word from sans terre without land or a home,which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particularhome, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret ofsuccessful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may bethe greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, isno more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the whilesedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer thefirst, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For every walk isa sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forthand reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels.

Great Story. My friend and I this spring did a bike tour with a bit of hiking from Northern France to Santiago and beyond. Traveling the pilgrimage is simple, easy and beautiful - and we were stealthcamping as often as possible and never eating in restaurants. We did imagine though, that if we were walking and had a much larger budget, we could live with only a smart phone, debit card, poncho, toothbrush and earplugs.Reading this makes me want to take a plane to somewhere in Europe and just see where the wind takes me...